Out of Tune
by Cammie-Strone
Summary: Love is like playing the piano. First you must learn to play by the rules, then you must forget the rules and play from your heart. DaveJohn AU fic Rated M for the typical swearing expected in homestuck and for future mature themes.


**Alright, so this is a DaveJohn story I've been wanting to write for a while now. This, along with The Broken Legacy, is my major story I wanna finish or close to it this summer. I'm only working on these two fics right now and hopefully, it'll stay that way. As it is, this is just a rough copy of what the first chapter will eventually become. I may or may not upload the final drafts as they finish, depending on how well-received this gets.**

**My plan with this story is I upload the rough draft and I also send it to my beta reader and then after I fix it up according to her tips, she reads it over once more and then I upload the fixed version to here. And then I work on the next chapter and the routine repeats :) So it may take a while between each chapter since my beta reader isn't able to get to the rough draft right away. So I ask for your patience :)**

**Anyway, I don't own any of the homestuck characters, even the trolls who are humanstuck'ed for this story. They all belong to Andrew Hussie, the creator of the web comic, homestuck. I do, however, own the plot. That's about it.**

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Being the new kid was rarely fun, what with the people staring and the whispers, but somehow Dave Strider managed it. He walked through the halls of Greenpoint High with a confident gait and head held high, as opposed to typical new students, who kept their gaze down and avoided looking at others. Not Dave, though; it was like he didn't give a shit what others said about him. Like the Texan was too cool for the whispers ad giggles sent in his direction.

It was about a week since Dave had been attending Greenpoint, and he'd adjusted reasonably well. He had fan girls who swooned at the very sight of him; the respect of most of the jocks after a spontaneous fight to prove their manliness. He even had a small group of friends to hang with during lunch and sometimes after school. Rose Lalonde, a girl Dave discovered was his very distant cousin, was among the people he hung with; they didn't know each other well, yet she managed to get under his skin fairly damn easily, much to his chagrin. Of course, despite that, the two were still good friends.

Jade Harley, a cute and bright girl, was another in the group. She was always smiling and teasing her friends playfully, though could still be fierce if she needed. In Dave's opinion, Jade was a nice girl and he liked hanging around her. She even went along when he rambled on about how his pointed shades were ironic; that gave her bonus points in Dave's book.

A month into Dave's arrival, sometime in early November, he found out about some big talent show occurring after New Year's. Jade had mentioned it during the start of lunch while talking to Rose about their other friend; some guy named John. Whoever he was.

"It's nice to see him so focused on something other than his pranks," Rose commented after Jade had slid into her usual seat at their table. "Though if he put the same dedication into his studies, John would be better off." The pale-blonde girl took a bite of her lunch and lavender hues rose to meet Jade's, who made a playful face of exasperation.

"John's doing _fine_ in his classes," she protested as she opened her blue Squiddles lunchbox and took out a sandwich. Rose said nothing more; she just made a questionable hum and continued eating her burger. Dave raised a brow at the two girls, curiosity eating at him inside. Finally, he couldn't resist any longer and propped his chin onto the heel of his hand.

"Alright, I give," the Texan drawled, his accent standing out plainly. Rose and Jade looked up at him. "Explain t'me who this John guy is. And why t'hell haven't I met him yet, even though I've been here a month already?"

His cousin gave an amused smirk, but he refused to let it or her piercing gaze bother him. Jade was the one who answered, giggling. Dave turned his hidden red eyes to her, brow still quirked up.

"John is one of our best friends," Jade explained, "I've known him since fifth grade, and Rose's known him since sixth."

"He also has a penchant of causing mischief at home as he dabbles in the art of pranking, something he learned from his father," Rose offered with a fond tone despite her supposed complaint.

Dave nodded once at the new intake of facts on a John Egbert he had yet to meet. He leaned back in his seat. "So, what? Egbert gonna do some magic tricks for the talent show?"

"Nope!" Jade chirped. "He's writing a new piano piece and plans to perform it then."

A confused frown played at the boy's lips, but didn't completely form. "What's so special 'bout this show, anyway? Everyone seems fuckin' pumped for it." Far as Dave knew, a talent show was just a bunch of tone-deaf kids who thought they were good at things that weren't even real talents to begin with. He couldn't understand what made Greenpoint's any different.

Rose laid her napkin down after dabbing it to the corners of her mouth. "It's going to have scouts from the local speciality schools there," she replied, gaining Dave's attention again. "It's something Greenpoint does every few years based on the school's yearly statistics of the students' performances in class."

Dave groaned a bit, trying to decipher through her words to get the bare basics of what she meant. She just smiled innocently at his frustration.

"So basically, the school puts on a talent show for the show offs," he translated.

"That's another way of putting it, yes."

"Well, that's _lame_," the Texan said bluntly, then stood. "With that, I'm gonna walk around the school and burn my lunch off before classes." He picked up his half eaten lunch tray and nodded upwards to the girls. Jade smiled and waved, as Rose nodded back.

"Bye, Dave! I'll see you in Bio last class!" the dark-haired girl told him. Dave nodded in agreement and left, dropping his garbage into the receptacle before sauntering out the cafeteria. Walking through the halls, filled on the sides by people playing video games together or trying to rush through last minute homework, Dave paused near a doorway to another, emptier hall.

_'Music?'_ the blond thought as he heard the barely audible melody of a fumbling piano. _'Well, makes sense. Show an' all. And I'm pretty sure the music room's down here.'_

As much as he tried to deny it, Dave found himself curious and heading in the direction of the piano, expression passive like always. The closer he got, the clearer and louder the random melody got. The teen stopped right outside a half-open door with a rectangular glass window partly obscured by a plague reading '_Music_' in cursive.

Standing in a way that he could see well enough inside, but whoever was in there couldn't see him, Dave peered in and had a view of a black-haired boy sitting at a worn out grand piano. His face was scrunched in concentration and his glasses were halfway down his nose, though the pianist didn't seem to care or notice.

"Gah, this thing is terrible," the boy hissed in frustration, giving the top of the instrument a smack with the palm of his hand. He gave a heavy sigh and hunched over, scribbling something onto a sheet of paper against the shelf on the piano. Dave had no idea what it was actually called, to be honest.

After a minute of scratching away, the boy in the room straightened and his fingers laid to the keys on the required positions. Dave watched him take a calming breath before a smooth, flowing tune began to fill the room and spill into the hallway the blonde was in.

_'That's an improvement on the fucking train wreak I heard earlier,'_ Dave mused to himself with a faint smirk. _'Judgin' by the dorky glasses and bedhead, this gotta be John.'_ His eyes somehow slid shut and he just listened to the other boy played. _'Okay, so maybe he ain't a tone-deaf talentless hack. He's pretty good.'_

The music stopped abruptly and for a moment, Dave panicked, thinking John had seen him. But his fear was unwarranted. John simply returned to writing on his sheet paper, muttering to himself, his words indistinguishable. Giving the empty hall a rare smile, Dave silently chuckled and shook his head. The kid might actually have a chance at the talent show if he could play that beautifully. So maybe the show wouldn't be as dumb as he originally thought. At the very least, Dave found a place he could go during lunch when he got bored. That was a plus to the aimless wandering he'd done.

Deciding to vamoose before John could actually catch him spying, the shades-wearing teen headed back down the hall, in the direction of the noisy students and crowds. Just as he reached his locker on the third floor, the bell rang for the end of lunch and the Texan soon forgot about his secret encounter of the pianist kind. Though, he doubt it would be his last.


End file.
